The notion of backdating "may have been spread by word of mouth, through the conduit of directors sitting on the boards of more than one company," The Corporate Library concludes.

Stephen Taub and Sarah Johnson, CFO.com
October 19, 2006

A company mired in the options backdating scandal is likely to have something in common with other companies caught in the scandal: a director who sits on the board of at least one other implicated company.

That’s the finding of a new study by The Corporate Library, which concludes that “the practice of backdating stock options may have been spread by word of mouth, through the conduit of directors sitting on the boards of more than one company.”
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Since its first study on the subject in June 2006, the number of companies implicated grew from 51 to 120 as of the end of September, the governance consultancy reported. (The Washington Post reported this week that that number had swelled to 135.) Through the end of last month, the number of companies being probed that have director-based links has grown even faster, from 11 to 51, according to the report.

Twenty-seven of the 120 companies, in fact, have more than one dual-board director. Just three such companies popped up in the Corporate Library’s earlier study. The director group comprises a total of 49 board members, with 43 sitting on the boards of two implicated companies and six sitting on three of them. In all, the 120 companies have 1,440 directors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is apparently on the case. In fact, the SEC is investigating whether directors who sit on more than one company board may have spread the practice of backdating stock-option grants, Bloomberg reported.

“We are looking at the interrelationship between directors on boards of companies that may have problems,'' Timothy England, an SEC assistant director of enforcement, told the wire service in an interview.

While SEC spokesperson John Nester told CFO.com that the quote was accurate, he downplayed its importance. "This is not unique to backdating,” he said, noting that the commission routinely looks at the interrelationships among boards during its investigations. "We would look to see where else a board member has served,” he added.

The study also found that three companies have six directors who sit on more than one implicated company board—Comverse, Verint Systems, and Ulticom. Comverse is the controlling stockholder of Verint, the Corporate Library notes.

Verisign has five dual-board directors, while Juniper Networks and Xilinx have four. According to the study, two directors in the network of option-scandal boards—William H. Kurtz and Scott G. Kriens—connect the most boards.

According to the Corporate Library, Juniper Networks directors Kriens and Stratton Sclavos are responsible for the central position of the company within the network of linked companies, and between them sit on four other implicated boards. (Kriens is chief executive officer of Juniper Networks). But a spokesperson for the company dismissed the relevance of the directors' interlocking roles to the backdating scandal. "It's irrelevant as it relates to this matter," Juniper Networks’ Brendan Hayes told CFO.com. "Neither executive sits on the compensation committee or audit committee of these boards."

To the suggestion that the report had to do with word-of-mouth communications and the sharing of ideas, not so much which committee the directors sat on, Hayes said: "Beyond that, we have no comment." Through a spokesperson for Novellus Systems, where Kurtz is a director, Kurtz said he had no comment.

"Verint Systems Inc. ("Verint") is presently unable to file the financial information required by Form 8-K in connection with its January 9, 2006 acquisition of MultiVision Intelligence Surveillance Limited's networked video security business (the "MultiVision Financial Information") as a consequence of the review by Comverse Technology, Inc. ("Comverse"), the 57% stockholder of Verint, of matters relating to grants of Comverse stock options and the potential impact of such review on Verint's financial statements. "

An Israeli security firm has been chosen to provide security for London’s Underground train network.

Verint Systems, a subsidiary of Israel's Comverse Technology announced that Metronet Rail has selected Verint's networked video solution to enhance security of the London Underground, according to an Israel21c report.

After extensive testing of Verint’s networked video system, including pilot installation on selected rail lines, Metronet Rail selected it to be installed on the entire Underground. The system will enable security personnel to monitor passenger platforms and certain remote portions of the track.

Verint president and CEO Dan Bodner told Israel21c: "We have significant experience working with transportation authorities and are committed to delivering innovative networked video security solutions for the transportation industry."

Metronet Rail, under a 30 year contract with the UK government, is responsible for maintaining parts of the London Underground's infrastructure. This includes ensuring security in trains, stations, tunnels and bridges.

From wire reports
The fugitive former chief executive of leading voice-mail-software maker Comverse Technology (CMVT) has been captured in Africa after a two-month international manhunt, U.S. officials announced Wednesday.

Details of the arrest of Jacob "Kobi" Alexander in the Republic of Namibia were not immediately available. But in a statement, U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf credited local officials in the southwest African nation for assisting the FBI in the capture.

Mauskopf said she would seek Alexander's swift extradition to face charges in federal court in Brooklyn. A call to his defense attorney in New York was not immediately returned.

The manhunt began in late July shortly before authorities unsealed a criminal complaint accusing Alexander and two other former top executives of secretly manipulating stock options for personal profit.

Before he disappeared, Alexander, 54, an Israeli citizen and a permanent U.S. resident, allegedly transferred $57 million to Israel, fueling speculation he may have fled there.

Two other defendants, former finance chief David Kreinberg and former senior general counsel William Sorin, surrendered in August and were released on $1 million bond each.

The complaint unsealed in federal court accuses the three men of making stock options more lucrative by backdating their exercise price to a low point in the stock's value. Usually, a stock option's exercise price coincides with the market value at the time of a grant, to give the recipient an incentive to drive the price higher.

From 1991 through 2005, Alexander exercised options and sold stocks worth about $150 million, making $138 million in profit, according to the complaint. Of that, about $6.4 million was generated by backdating options, it said.

Prosecutors allege Kreinberg and Sorin earned about $1 million each on backdated options.

In addition, the company awarded thousands of stock options to fictional employees, then secretly transferred the awards to an internal account under the name I.M. Fanton, which stood for phantom, court papers said. The scheme allowed Alexander to award those options to real "favored employees" and to himself without the Comverse board's approval, the papers added.

As CEO of Comverse, Alexander was sought out by former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, who slipped away from official meetings in 2000 to meet with him in Tel Aviv.

The scrutiny of backdating at Comverse has triggered the widest-ranging fraud charges to date from the more than 130 inquiries launched by regulators, prosecutors or companies into stock-options timing. Options backdating, used to reward employees with shares granted at below-market prices, has so far cost investors at least $7.9 billion in market value, according to Bloomberg data.

Comverse's fortunes soared during the late 1990s with growing sales of cellular phones that use the company's voice-mail software. The stock rose from a low of $9.98 on Oct. 8, 1998, to $121.63 on Jan. 24, 2001.

Comverse has yet to file complete financial reports for the year ended Jan. 31 and the first quarter ended April 30, having asked for more time to review the alleged manipulation of stock options by the three executives.

Fortress GB is an Israeli-run company doing business in Great Britain. It is on the same floor, in the same building, as ICTS UK, which is another Israeli transportation security firm. ICTS UK Ltd.and Fortress GB Ltd. are both located on the 1st floor of Tavistock House South, which is exactly where the bus blew up on July 7. An Israeli man answered the phone at Fortress GB and was noticeably reluctant to answer any questions about who ran the company although he did admit that a lot of Israelis worked there. The secretary at ICTS UK Ltd., however, quickly told me that the companies are related.

These Israeli security firms need to be investigated in light of the London bombings, because they provide "security technology" for the tube lines that were bombed. They have perfected their "security" skills in Israel and Iraq and then apply them in Britain and the U.S.A. This is a pattern. The same thing happened at Heathrow when the PanAm flight went down, the same thing occurred at Boston and Newark airports on 9/11.

Isn't it time for nations to use their own brains and people to protect their citizens and stop outsourcing their most fundamental obligations to dodgy Israeli "security" firms?

ICTS UK Ltd is another Israeli-run 'transportation security' company with offices in London. Although the company's registered address is listed as 8 Baker Street, they operate, however, from an office on the first Floor of Tavistock House South. Curiously, this is the exact same location that Fortress GB operate from. More curious still, Tavistock House is the exact location where the number 30 bus exploded on 7th July.

Given that both companies provide 'transportation security' services, operate from the same floor of the same office complex, and given that both are owned and run by Israelis, only a hardened 'coincidence theorist' would deny that there is evidence indicating tangible links between the two. Indeed, one could be forgiven for believing that the same people are behind Fortress GB Ltd and ICTS UK Ltd.

As Christopher Bollyn points out, these companies merit being investigated because "they provide 'security technology' for the tube lines that were bombed." Bollyn also points out that these Israeli companies perfect their 'security' skills in Israel and Iraq and then apply them in Britain and the USA.

ICTS International were the company who ran the security arrangements at ALL the airports from where the hijacked airliners departed from on the morning of September 11th, 2001.
...................................................................... .
From: www.declarepeace.org.uk/captain/murder_inc/site/CCTV.html

'... Fortress GB, a smart card technology developer and integrator for ICTS Europe. ICTS Europe is an Israeli security company based in the Netherlands, a subsidiary of which is Huntleigh. Huntleigh was the security contractor at Logan Airport on 9/11 that failed to provide us with CCTV evidence of hijackers. The London Underground is one of Fortress GB's clients and according to their press release they provide smart card technology (personal details and biometric information) for contractors that operate in Tube stations.'

Concerning how quickly the search turned to Luton on July 7th:
'Luton is interesting because an office of ICTS (the Israeli security firm) is about a mile from a Thameslink station. ICTS is actually located in the Luton and Dunstable NHS Hospital. It seems a little odd that this firm that handles security for the Stansted airport would be located at the Hospital.

This can of worms is getting bigger day by day. The story would be hilarious... if it wasn't for the fact that these people own and control Verint Systems, who are responsible for the safety of millions of passengers every day on the London Underground - Tony

In a plea bargain, former Comverse CFO David Kreinberg pleaded guilty on two counts of security fraud and conspiracy.
Shay Niv 25 Oct 06 17:13

Former Comverse Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: CMVT) CFO David Kreinberg, who turned state’s evidence in the US case against his former boss, Kobi Alexander, is the executive whom Alexander allegedly tried to bribe.
Kreinberg testified to this effect in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn) yesterday as part of a plea bargain in which he pleaded guilty on two counts of security fraud and conspiracy.
He told prosecutors that Alexander offered him $2 million to take full blame for the stock options backdating affair at Comverse. He said Alexander increased the offer to $5 million, and when he again refused, Alexander said, “Name your price.”
The FBI representative in South Africa told the Windhoek Magistrates Court in Namibia in a hearing for Alexander on October 2 that a senior executive had turned state’s evidence.
Alexander’s US attorney, Adv. Robert Morvillo, said in response, “My client denies that offered a bribe to Kreinberg, and he intends to contest the accusations if and when he returns.”
Kreinberg told the court yesterday, “I was asked by the CEO to bring him a printout of the company's trading prices over a past year period to enable him to select the 'as of' date that would be used for the exercise price of the option grant.”
He told the court that the scheme understated Comverse's compensation expenses, thus inflating net income on financial statements that he signed and submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He added that he knew his actions were "wrong."
Under the plea bargain, Kreinberg can expect less than the 15-year sentence he could have faced before agreeing to testify. He will be sentenced on February 23, 2007.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 25, 2006_________________www.rethink911.orgwww.actorsandartistsfor911truth.orgwww.mediafor911truth.orgwww.pilotsfor911truth.orgwww.mp911truth.orgwww.ae911truth.orgwww.rl911truth.orgwww.stj911.orgwww.l911t.comwww.v911t.orgwww.thisweek.org.ukwww.abolishwar.org.ukwww.elementary.org.ukwww.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
https://37.220.108.147/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/

Rudolph Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City at the time of the 9/11 attacks, was staying at the Great Eastern hotel on the 7th of July, where TASE was hosting its economic conference, with Israel's Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as keynote speaker.

Giuliani was having a business breakfast meeting in his room at the Great Eastern Hotel, close to Liverpool Street station when the bombs went off:

"I didn't hear the Liverpool Street bomb go off," he explains. "One of my security people came into the room and informed me that there had been an explosion. We went outside and they pointed in the direction of where they thought the incident had happened. There was no panic. I went back in to my breakfast. At that stage, the information coming in to us was very ambiguous." (quoted in the Evening Standard, 11 July 2005.)

Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Rudolph Giuliani knew each other. Giuliani had officially welcomed Netanyahu when he visited New York City as Prime Minister of Israel in 1996. There was no indication, however, from news reports that the two men met in London at the Great Eastern. On the day prior to the London attacks, July 6th, Giuliani was in North Yorkshire at a meeting.

It is also a fact that Silverstein was friend was Benjamin Netanyahuand talked to him on the phone weekly. What was the famous comments Netanyahu made about 9-11? "It's very good." Then he corrected himself and said, "Well it's not good but it will generate sympathy for Israel." Netanyahu was also the man who received a prior warning in London 2005 to stay in his hotel because of an event which turned out to be the London attacks.

But however sexy the mystery, the memo itself isn’t especially eye-popping. The key vulnerabilities it points out—sordid details from Giuliani’s three marriages and the clientele of his private security business, Giuliani Partners—were already well-known to the former New York mayor’s potential opponents.

Why did Private Eye never get seriously involved with exposing 7/7 and 911? Oh I forgot, they only do Rotten Boroughs. Never a mention of the clever stribe. Silly me. And I used to fall for it too..._________________Belief is the Enemy of Truth www.dissential.com

It has been estimated that the average Londoner is photographed by 300 videocameras per day. Assuming most people sleep or are at home for 14 hours per day that means 30 times per hour or once every 2 minutes. Three alleged bombers allegedly spent about an hour each wandering through a high risk area - London Underground. Thanks to Israeli security, none appeared on any security camera recordings. The odds against this number of camera failures could be calculated. Anyone care to do it? The number is sure to be close to be several digits to one.

Multiply that number by the Bus Bomb anomalies (ludicrous diversion + camera not working) and I bet we are lookink at 10 to the power 77.

77 Russell Street,Tavistock Square was the first headquarters of the World Zionist Organization.

7/7

...any connection to flight 77???

This year we have coming up 7/7/7..._________________Belief is the Enemy of Truth www.dissential.com

Joined: 13 Jul 2006Posts: 326Location: All Power To The People, No More Power To The Pigs

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:24 am Post subject:

rodin wrote:

Multiply that number by the Bus Bomb anomalies (ludicrous diversion + camera not working) and I bet we are lookink at 10 to the power 77.

77 Russell Street,Tavistock Square was the first headquarters of the World Zionist Organization.

7/7

...any connection to flight 77???

This year we have coming up 7/7/7...

Don't forget Christian Ronaldo plays number 7 for Manchester United, and was named Ronaldo because his parents loved the former US president Ronald Reagan - does that prove a Portugese/American link to the attacks?

How many employees did Verint Systems have on 7/7? Not, by any chance, 1,000?

Quote:

Employees
As of January 31, 2003, the Company had approximately 900 employees. A majority of its employees are scientists, engineers or technicians engaged in research and development, sales and marketing, and operations. The Company considers its relationship with its employees to be good. Verint’s employees in the United States are not covered by any collective bargaining agreement. Verint’s employees outside the United States are entitled to severance and other benefits mandated under local laws.

Employees
As of January 31, 2005, the Company had approximately 1,200 employees. A majority
of its employees are scientists, engineers or technicians engaged in research and development,
sales and marketing, and operations. The Company considers its relationship with its employees
to be good. Verint’s employees in the United States are not covered by any collective bargaining
agreement. Verint’s employees outside the United States are entitled to severance and other
benefits mandated under local laws. Approximately 41%, 40%, 16% and 3% of the Company’s
employees are located in North America, Israel, Europe and APAC, respectively.
Israeli law generally requires the payment by employers of severance pay upon the death
of an employee, retirement or upon termination of employment, and the Company provides for
such payment obligations through monthly contributions to an insurance fund. Additionally,
Israeli employees and employers are required to pay pre-determined sums to the National
Insurance Institute, which covers medical and other benefits similar to the benefits provided by
the United States Social Security Administration.

Let's come back to the 'parent' companies of Verint systems, ICTS and Comverse, consulting Ruppert's chapter 'Israel' in his magnum opus about 9/11, Crossing the Rubicon.

"An Israeli owned company, ICTS, had a contract to provide security at Boston's Logan airport, from which 9/11 flights 11 and 175 originated. and either directly or through subsidiaries it had contacts at every other airport where planes were hijacked on 9/11."

Comverse "has multiple contracts to handle sensitive wiretap operations for government agencies, and Fox reported that the Comverse systems included a 'back door' for outside parties with access to it to overhear monitored conversations .... Comverse becomes especially interesting because of its relationship with the Israeli instant-messaging firm Odigo. On September 11 employees of Odigo in Israel received specific instant messages warning them of the attacks two hours before they happened. .. one breathtaking connection that was overlooked in the mainsteam press, however, was that in January 2001, Comverse, along with Lazard Technology Partners and another venture capital group, purchased 15 million dollars stake in Odigo, giving it access to Odigo's operations, accounting, and technologies (p.262)."

Gee thanks Mayor Ken, that makes me feel so secure.

We learn from 'govtsecurity' about the value of Verint's high-tech approach:

Quote:

The Verint product, called Nextiva Transit, can also be programmed to watch for people loitering on transit platforms or people wearing heavy coats on hot summer days. Intelligent video systems look for anomalies as well as images that law enforcement believe may appear prior to a terrorist bombing attack.

...the airline security company responsible for the shocking security lapses at both the Boston and Newark airports on 9-11 is a wholly-owned subsidiary of an Israeli company (ICTS) headed by men with clear ties to Israel’s military intelligence agency, Mossad.

" ... the 9-11 terror case, in which an Israeli security company is a key defendant and in which individuals from Israeli military intelligence are suspected of being involved …. Huntleigh USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of an Israeli company called International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS) International N.V., a Netherlands-based aviation and transportation security firm headed by “former [Israeli] military commanding officers and veterans of government intelligence and security agencies.

"Menachem Atzmon, convicted in Israel in 1996 for campaign finance fraud, and his business partner Ezra Harel, took over management of security at the Boston and Newark airports when their company ICTS bought Huntleigh USA in 1999. UAL Flight 175 and AA 11, which allegedly struck the twin towers, both originated in Boston, while UAL 93, which purportedly crashed in Pennsylvania, departed from the Newark airport..

Furthermore, " The owner and President of ICTS is an Israeli named Menahem Atzmon. Atzmon just happens to be a good friend of current Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert. In fact, Atzmon is such a good friend of Almert that he was involved in a financial scandal involving forged receipts for donations to the 198 Likud campaign with olmert back in 1997 when Atzmon was co-treasurer of the Likud party ... Two of the three 9/11 airports were serviced by this one Israeli-owned company ICTS, through its subsidiary Huntleigh International which ICTS acquired in 1999, which sells security, ticketing, check-in and passenger screening services to Boston's Logan airport and New Jersey's Newark airport - but not to Washington's Dulles airport." (Ibid)
(9/11 The Ultimate truth Laura Knight and Joe Quinn, 2006 p.108)

In conclusion,

Quote:

To determine whether Israel was involved in the 7/7 attacks, a root and branch investigation of Fortress GB and ICTS is called for. Perhaps one way the British government could better protect its citizens would be to cease outsourcing basic security arrangements to questionable Israeli companies that may well be no more than MOSSAD fronts..

WSJ.com editor Tim Hanrahan has put together a quick chronology of what Comverse Technology executives did in the wake of an inquiry by a Wall Street Journal reporter into a pattern of suspicious option grants. The timeline is based on the criminal complaint and affidavit sworn to by an FBI special agent.

Friday, March 3, 2006 ? WSJ reporter calls chairman of Comverse?s compensation committee about suspicious pattern of options grants, where options were granted on days that coincided with dips in the stock price. Reporter provides charts to committee chairman, who sends them to a company lawyer, who shows them to CEO Kobi Alexander. Alexander reviews the charts and says ?we picked good days,? in explaining the fortuitous grant dates.

Sunday, March 5 ? Alexander, finance chief David Kreinberg and General Counsel William Sorin meet with company lawyer. They explain one option grant by saying that Alexander noticed a dip in the stock price and picked that date, the same day, to price the options.

Monday, March 6 ? The three men state to company lawyer that the grants were made by acting quickly when the stock price dropped, meaning grant dates were selected and approved on the same day.

Tuesday, March 7 ? Company issues statement to WSJ: ?Regarding your questions from yesterday, our response is: ?All grants of stock options to our management and employees were made in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations.? ? In response, reporter asks the company to confirm that grants were made on the dates listed in his table. This provokes more discussion at Comverse. The three men repeat that the grants were approved on a dip in the stock price.

Thursday, March 9 ? Alexander, Sorin and Kreinberg tell Comverse lawyer that they have retained a law firm to repesent them individually. They say that there may be ?issues? and ?hypothetically speaking? they may not have called compensation committee members for approval on the actual date of the grants and that may have ?looked back? in selecting options dates. Comverse lawyer ends meeting and tells the men he plans to call emergency meeting of the board to dicuss the developments.

Friday, March 10 ? Board forms special committee to investigate the options dating.

Sunday, March 12 ? Comverse issues new statement to WSJ: ?We are withdrawing our previous comments, and we are replacing them with the following: ?We are currently reviewing our option grants. Accordingly, the earlier statements should not be used.? ?

Monday, March 13 ? Alexander and Kreinberg admit to Comverse lawyer ? who has cautioned the men that he/she doesn?t represent them ? that grants were backdated, there were grants to ficititious ?phantom? individuals, and that an account called ?Fargo? was used from for several years ending in 2002 to store the phantom options, which they said were used to retain employees, not high-paid executives. Alexander tells Comverse lawyer that it was a different environment in the 1990s and that every company in Silicon Valley was ?doing it? ? or backdating.

Tuesday, March 14 ? Comverse stock drops 15% after company announces it has launched internal investigation to review options grants

It seems widely agreed that 'Two Israeli companies Amdocs and Comverse InfoSys (now called Verint) manage just about every aspect of the US telephone system'. Some further gen came from, surprisingly, a Fox News' four-part series by Carl Cameron, aired on Fox News Dec 2001. He explained how

Quote:

Sources tell Fox News that in 1999, the super secret National Security Agency, headquartered in northern Maryland, issued what's called a Top Secret sensitive compartmentalised information report, TS/SCI, warning that records of calls in the United States were getting into foreign hands, in Israel in particular.

Widespread data mining techniques and algorithms could tune into specific customers. Cameron further explained how ' Comverse Infosys provides the wiretapping equipment and software for US law enforcement agencies.' Uh-huh. Fox News had learnt that Attorney General Ashcroft and FBI Director Muller were both warned on Oct 18 in hand-delivered letters that their electronic surveillance might be compromised. The complaint about Comverse was that their wiretap computer programs tended to have a 'back door through which wiretaps themselves can be intercepted by unauthorised authorities.' In Israel, Comverse works closely with the Israeli government and under special programs gets reimbursed for up to 50 percent of its research and development costs by the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade. Various investigators have told Fox News that to even suggest Israeli spying through Comverse amounts to career suicide.

Former Israeli Prime minister, Benjamin Netenyahu, had a privileged position in time and space, residing in a hotel near to where the Liverpool Street bomb went off that very morning - and being warned about it in advance. It was he who made the comment, on the day after 9/11, that it was 'very good for Israel.' One might wish to make a similar comment about July 7th.

Source: 9/11 The Ultimate Truth Laura Knight Jadczyt 2006, p.111.

Last edited by astro3 on Wed Apr 04, 2007 12:02 pm; edited 2 times in total

PRESS RELEASE Scandals rock London Underground CCTV firm - But who will act for public safety?

Two secretive companies entrusted, post-privatisation, with the safety of Londoners on the Underground system have since become embroiled in an insider trading, fraud and bribery trial in New York. A closer look shows some of the concerns that were raised, but put aside, during privatisation were actually justified, and suggests that, for the safety of Londoners, contracts with these businesses should immediately be terminated.

That is the topic of a report, prepared for the London branch of a campaign looking at terror attacks in the US and UK. It shows another side to the 2005 London bombs than that presented to press and public by the Sir Ian Blair and other government officials. It shows that security may have been compromised not only by terrorists, but by private firms that are supposed to protect Londoners from the terror threat. Under the spotlight are two companies, Verint Systems and their parent business, Comverse Technologies who were last month delisted from the New York NASDAQ index. Comverse’ Chief Executive is at the centre of a multi-million dollar fraud, money laundering and bribery scandal, has absconded, and is now facing extradition from Africa.

Because of the nature of the businesses, which have close ties to the police and intelligence services, information about these scandals has been difficult to uncover. There is a culture of complete trust in security firms and no-one wants to contemplate the enormous implications of their being found corrupt, or found to be working in the interests of private or foreign powers, and against those of both travelling public and underground staff. Verint’s PR people misrepresent the facts to talk up their own products, as evidenced by inaccurate statements on the London bombings by Verint’s Alan Roden.

But, the facts speak for themselves: businesses shrouded in double walls of secrecy due to ‘commercial confidentiality’ and ‘national security’, and entrusted with the safety of three million passengers a day on the London Underground have broken that covenant of trust. Metrolink Rail and the GLA, in the interests of safety, should terminate Verint Systems’ contract, and their security clearance access to the London Underground network immediately.

‘If you see anything suspicious please tell a member of staff’: A report for the UK 911 Truth campaign presented by Tony Gosling in the Mahatma Gandhi Hall, Indian YMCA, Fitzroy Square London on Monday 19th March, 2007.

Comverse Technology – www.cmvt.com
Wiretapping, phone billing and mobile phone voicemail software developers. An Israeli company now at the centre of $8bn fraud enquiry in New York, Comverse share six directors with a wider network of linked companies also under investigation. Comverse took over the Hong Kong company Multivision Intelligence Surveillance Ltd. in January 2006 but the Comverse directors failed to file the financial information required by law. They were delisted from NASDAQ and suspended from stock trading on 1st February, 2007, because of financial mismanagement and non-filing of essential accounting information - along with Verint Systems who are now also NASDAQ delisted.

Verint Systems – www.verint.com
All activities of this business are directed by Comverse Technology who own 57% controlling stock. Two thirds of Verint’s business is security products used by law enforcement and intelligence services to intercept voice, video and email traffic, the other third is call centre monitoring and employee evaluation software. With approximately 1000 employees worldwide, they were awarded the contract for all London Underground’s CCTV in September, 2004, by the privatised 'Metronet Rail' who, in turn, have a 30 year contract from the UK government to manage London Underground security. Privatisation was imposed against the wishes of elected Greater London Authority (GLA) by Gordon Brown’s Treasury Department.

Verint CEO Daniel Bodner is a former senior Israeli army officer who gets $4m annual benefits (including salary). Verint currently being investigated by Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over proposed merger with Witness Systems Inc. for possible phone monitoring technology monopoly. Verint rumoured to be targeted by IBM for takeover.

Quote:

‘Nextiva Transit’ is Verint’s networked hi-tech CCTV system now being installed on ‘London Underground platforms and remote portions of track’.

The system is programmed to automatically ‘watch for people loitering on transit platforms or people wearing heavy coats on hot summer days’. Do the British people want this?

Verint spokesman Alan Roden was referring to London’s July 7th 2005 bombing claims when he told Michael Fickes, ‘video proved an effective investigation tool and highlights the value of networked video in mass transit systems’. A Government Security website article explained that using CCTV images ‘London police had discovered who was responsible and arrested many, if not all, of the perpetrators who remained alive.’ Quotes and articles such as this misrepresent the historical record: no CCTV image of any of the four alleged bombers on the London Underground on 7th July 2005 has been disclosed, neither were there any perpetrator arrests, as all four suspects allegedly blew themselves up.

Comverse’s directorsJacob ‘Kobi’ Alexander, chief executive,
Target of FBI, Wall Street Journal and Securities & Exchange Commission fraud enquiry in New York, declared fugitive in August 2006. Wanted on 35 criminal counts including stock option backdating, conspiracy, securities fraud, money laundering and bribery. Arrested after 7 week manhunt in Namibia in September 2006. Travelling via. Israel he transferred $17m to Namibia, bought a luxury house and formed a new construction, tourism and agriculture company. Now building 200 low income homes for workers at the new ‘Langer Heinrich’ uranium mine. Alexander’s extradition hearing begins in Windhoek on April 25th 2007, he’s facing up to 20 years jail in New York. Known to be a close associate of former Chinese president Jiang Zmein.

David Kreinberg, chief financial officer
Turned state’s evidence, pleaded guilty and told New York FBI that Comverse CEO Alexander offered him financial inducements to take the rap for everything. CEO Jacob Alexander allegedly offered him $2m and he refused, offered him $5m and he still refused, then, according to Kreinberg, Alexander said “name your price”. To be sentenced February 23rd 2007.

William Sorin, company lawyer
Pleaded guilty. Paid $3.1 million fine at the end of 2006 as compensation for fraudulent activities. Permanent ban on acting as a company lawyer.

Conclusions
Roughly three million people a day use the London Underground network. Since privatisation, contracts are also shrouded in double walls of secrecy to protect both ‘national security’ and ‘commercial confidentiality’. But with that secrecy comes a caveat of absolute 100% trust and clear loyalty to the people of London who use the tube network. Instead what we find is a company with 24 hour access to the entire tube network is run by a senior ex Israeli army officer, whose former employers are engaged in a largely covert war against Arabs for land. His present employers are wanted on 40 plus criminal counts, implicated in multi-million dollar fraud and conspiracy and facing several long jail sentences.

Gathering this information has not been easy, because of the immense secrecy surrounding the security businesses involved. As a result tube staff & public are almost entirely unaware of this information. The covenant of trust required by all those who use and work on the tube has been broken. For the safety of all Londoners, we call for contracts with Verint Systems to be immediately suspended by Metronet Rail, the GLA or the Government pending a transparent investigation into Verint and parent company Comverse. Also control of the London Underground CCTV network must be wrested from those with close ties to the Israeli armed forces until the Middle East conflict is over.

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